Lady Butterfly's journey to financial independence

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Step 1: Pay Off Primary Home Mortgage

The first step of my five year plan to FI/RE is to pay off my primary home mortgage or have the means to pay it off. What I mean is that I am planning a two part process. Part One is to continue to pay additional principal until I reach $40K of principal at the end of five years, or before that. Part two is to invest in a Muni-Bond every month until I reached $40K at the end of five years, or before that, to cover the rest of the principal.

The loan amount on my primary home after the last refinance is $120K with a 3% fixed interest rate and a 15-year loan term. I have already paid off more than a quarter in the last few years since the refinance, and the current loan amount is a little shy of $85K. Since my internal target is October 15, 2020, that leaves me about 53 months to pay off $45K. What that means is that I need to pay off $850 in principal each month. Currently the principal portion of my monthly payment is about $615, so I would have to pay additional $235 per month. Currently I am paying $300 additional principal per month so Part One of this step is covered. Ideally, I would like to complete this step by March 15 of 2019 ,so I will increase my monthly payment by about $675 instead.

Part Two is to invest in a Muni Bond until I reached $40K on October 15, 2020. The exact breakdown is $755 a month for the next 53 months. The reason I am doing this is that when my mortgage reaches $40K in principal, the interest portion will be less than one hundred dollars per month, and the interest on the Muni Bond will earn more than enough to cover the mortgage interest. At that time I will be free of my mortgage. I have the option to pay it off, or not, depending on the Muni Bond interest. When that happens I wouldn’t mind riding the rest of the loan to term, knowing that I have the money to pay it off, if necessary. It makes more financial sense if I keep the money in Muni Bonds to earn interest, and have an extra cushion of liquid asset in case of emergencies.